Gavok note: For the past year or so in my This Week in Panels series, panels for Ultimate Spider-Man have been supplied every month by regular reader Michael Stangeland, otherwise known as Space Jawa. With Ultimate Peter Parker’s corpse still a bit fresh, Jawa wanted to touch on his perspective of the mini-event. Since we’re always open to reader guest articles, I was more than happy to oblige.

I’ll admit right off the bat that when I first heard about Bendis’ The Death of Spider-Man story arc, I was concerned. Initially, it was worry about the titular character actually biting it, in spite of how he’s been around since the launch of Marvel’s Ultimate line-up. So it’s entirely possible that my reaction to how the story actually went there and did what’s previously only been done in a few dozen different issues of What-If?.

However, I’d also like to be able to think that I’m not that close-minded. After all, I was willing to see the entirety of the story arc through before passing final judgment, and I recognize that sometimes, character death is for the best, and a lot of great things can come out of it. After all, look at what Brubaker did with killing off Steve Rogers (before he brought him back, of course).

And for a world to truly move forwards, sometimes the characters we know and love have to move on so the next generation of great characters can take their turn in the spotlight and provide new story opportunities. When I first read Lord of the Rings back when I was in grade school, my gut reaction was to be disappointed that Bilbo wouldn’t be the main character again. Fortunately, I moved past that quickly enough and was able to get through the entirety of JRR Tolkien’s masterpiece.

So I’m hoping that I’m being honest with myself that the real reason for my distaste for the whole Death of Spider-Man arc is truly in reaction to how it was carried out rather than the end result. If it looks otherwise after I’ve said my piece, I encourage you to call me out on it.

I wish I could say that the use of “proudly” wasn’t meant to be serious.

The first major problem with Death of Spider-Man shows up in the very first three pages of the story. The major driving force behind Ultimate Pete’s death is that Norman Osborn is back from the dead. Of course, characters coming back from the dead isn’t anything that comics are unfamiliar with.

Problem is, this is Marvel’s Ultimate Comics universe. And if I’m not mistaken, one of the major points that has been made about the UC is that when characters die, they stay dead. Something that brings it even closer to being set in the “real world” than the classic 616 universe.

Worse, not only is Norman Osborn back from the dead, but not once over the course of the story is an answer provided as to why he’s back from the dead. Not even a pseudo-scientific answer. All they do is say he’s back from the dead, point out he’s back from the dead, and then try to hand wave it away by saying they don’t know why he’s back from the dead.

Even Director Danvers and Norman Osborn himself recognize that Osborn shouldn’t be here.

It was right there that I got my first real bad gut feeling about what direction Ultimate Spider-Man was going. Had I known then what I know now, I’m not sure I would have stuck with the story all the way through.

So Norman then proceeds to show that not only is he back from the dead, he’s also come back at full-power, and then uses said power to not only free himself, but the rest of the Sinister Six.

But as it turns out, none of them are responsible for killing Spider-Man. No, what kills Spider-Man is one of two things, depending on how you look at the situation.

It’s either A – A bullet from the Punisher that was meant for Captain America, B – Pete’s own stupidity, or C – Both options. Which is the second major problem with Death of Spider-Man.

Consider the sequence below:

I get the idea that Spider-Man wants to save Captain America. I can respect Pete trying to intervene in a fight he’s already been told to stay away from in order to keep Punisher from offing Steve (at least, from his perspective).

But the way he does it does not come across as the behavior of someone with a great deal of intelligence and combat experience. And Spider-Man, even Ultimate Spider-Man, is supposed to be someone with plenty of both. Bendis even made a point of pointing out how smart he is in the Ultimate Doomdsay miniseries trilogy.

So why does Pete resort to tackling Captain America and taking the bullet for him? It can’t possibly be faster than tackling Punisher himself. Especially not when he has his webbing, which he’s shown to shoot at the very same girder that Punisher is standing on, while in the process of swinging to block the Punisher’s shot. And I find it hard to believe that this is Pete simply trying to stick Punisher but missing – he can’t possibly be that bad a shot.

The third major problem brings us back to Osborn, and his role in the story after he comes back from the dead. To sum it up – Bendis turns Osborn into the Ultimate Marvel version of Doomsday. He serves no purpose in the story other than to kill Spider-Man. Worse? At least Doomsday was the actual threat of the Death of Superman story and responsible for killing him.

Spider-Man, however, dies on account of a bullet wound. A bullet wound he takes because he couldn’t stop Punisher directly for some reason. And which doesn’t kill him directly, but instead bleeds out, since he can’t go to the hospital to get it patched up because Norman Osborn is back from the dead for some unspecified reason and Spider-Man has to stop him, lest he kill everyone that Peter cares about. And, in true plot device fashion, as soon as Spider-Man is beyond hope of saving, Osborn dies. Again.

So the question is, why did Spider-Man have to die? And if his death was really so necessary, why was he unable to come up with a means of doing so that doesn’t insult my intelligence? That doesn’t leave me with this extreme feeling of frustration? That doesn’t leave me thinking I’ll probably stop reading New Avengers simply because Bendis is on such thin ice as far as I’m concerned? (Though I suppose it does help that New Avengers felt like it was weakening from the original reason I started reading it, anyway)

And was his death really so necessary as to cut short the entertaining new direction the comic was taking post-Ultimatum? Dare I say it, I would have been willing to argue that what Bendis was doing with the lemons Leob handed him almost made the whole mess of a crossover worth it (well, that and the Ultimate Edit series). Out of the whole Magneto fiasco, Ultimate Spider-Man was taking a path even further removed from his 616 origins and making for an incredibly entertaining read.

JJJ went from a detractor of Spider-Man’s to one of his supporters, and then discovered his secret identity and offered to help Peter in whatever way he could.

Human Torch and Iceman both moved into Peter’s house, creating their own little miniature Avengers Mansion.

Kitty Pride took on a new identity as Ultimate Shroud, and discovered a new use for her powers that made an incredible amount of sense.

And then there’s the arc that was just getting warmed up where Spider-Man was taking after-school hero lessons from Iron Man, Captain America, and most likely Thor later on.

Oh, the tragic irony. In a cemetery, even.

But in spite of it all, and probably against my better judgment, I’m willing to give Bendis a chance to make up for this whole mess. A chance to prove that this was just a bad fluke. That he’s still capable of writing Ultimate Spider-Man at a level that kept me entertained the last time around. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for at least issue #1 of the new series with the new Spider-Man.

I’ll even try to do it with an open mind – who knows, maybe he’ll actually manage to pull something really entertaining out of this mess of a story arc, like he did when he managed to take the series an entertaining new direction following Ultimatum.

But I’ll be holding it to an extremely high standard. I’ll be looking for a new Spider-Man who doesn’t come across as some kind of carbon copy of Peter Parker. And I’ll be expecting the series to hit the ground running, with some sort of bang right out of the gate.

Because if it doesn’t, I may very well be done with not just with Ultimate Spider-Man, but with the Ultimate imprint all together.

Here’s hoping I don’t end up regretting giving Bendis even that much.

Similar Posts:

• Random Thought of 4/12/07
• Spider-Spotlight 01 – Jenkins/Ramos
• Peter Meets Lucas and the Comic We Need to See
• This Week in Panels: Week 82
• This Week in Panels: Week 73

Posted in comic books, reviews by guest article |